Amazon may release smartphone

Kindle company Amazon may join the smartphone market by releasing its own mobile phone.

After the success of its Kindle Fire last year, which resulted in it dominating half of the Android tablet market, it seems a natural progression to now turn to smartphones.

The handset will have a 4.7-inch screen, placing it between the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S4, according to Digitimes.

Combined with the rumour that it would be marketed at a fairly low price it seems Amazon may be looking to target the mid-range smartphone audience who don't want to spend a fortune on something that will be out-of-date in a few months time.

Previous rumours indicated the device would be in stores by the latter half of this year, but it seems the firm will miss that deadline.

Foxconn are rumoured to be manufacturing the phone as it has made the Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Paperwhite.

There's been little information about what specifications to expect but Amazon would need to compete with the Apple iPhone and Samsung S4 if it wants to make an impact.